1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of multimedia data handling, and more specifically, to a computer-based method and system for performing synchronized sub-titling of audio or audio-visual material in a multitude of different languages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, most moving picture productions, such as movies, commercials, or the like, aim at an international audience. Thus, these productions can be distributed in languages other than the original language used during production. Moreover additional synchronized language versions can be assembled in which all dialogues and narrative sequences are spoken in the mother tongue of a particular audience.
Since the time efforts and costs for producing such synchronized versions are substantial, these language adaptations are usually produced only for the world's major languages. But for the languages spoken in smaller market segments, either the original production or a sub-titled version is used. In a sub-titled version, the translation of the spoken components appears as a synchronized textual overlay, usually in the lower area of the image. Accordingly, the term ‘sub-title’ is understood to refer generally to a textual, time-tagged representation that has to be rendered to become visible or audible.
Modern distribution media such as DVD can include an assembled international version of any audio-visual material which can contain both multiple sound-tracks for different languages, as well as multiple sub-title streams that can be selected and switched by the user during playback. Currently, most of this information has to be generated and synchronized manually.